North Korea Fires Artillery Near Disputed Waters

North Korea Fires Artillery Near Disputed Waters
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: August 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/world/asia/10korea.html


SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired 110 artillery rounds at waters near a disputed western sea border with the South on Monday, escalating already high tensions after the sinking in March of a South Korean warship.

About 10 shells landed near Byeongryeong, a South Korean border island, followed by an additional 100 rounds falling near another border island, Yeonpyeong, said a spokesman of the Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul, who insisted on anonymity until there was a formal government announcement.

Between 5:52 p.m. and 6:14 p.m., personnel on navy ships and South Korean marines based on the islands saw columns of sea water spouting up after the shells struck, he said.

The spokesman said that all the shells fell just north of the so-called Northern Limit Line, or N.L.L., which both South Korea and the United States consider the only legitimate western sea border between the Koreas and have patrolled since the three-year Korean War ended in a cease-fire in 1953.

But the South Korean national news agency Yonhap and SBS, a domestic television network, citing unidentified military sources, reported that some of the rounds crossed the line. The two South Korean islands, heavily populated by South Korean marines and fishermen, lie within the 17-mile range of North Korea’s coastline artillery.

South Korea has recently said that any North Korean shells falling south of that line will be considered an attack and will be responded to in kind.

“The shells came from North Korea’s shore guns,” the South Korean spokesman said. “Our navy boosted its surveillance and combat readiness. We also broadcast a warning to the North Koreans.” He would not give more details.

The waters around the two islands were the site of three recent naval skirmishes between the Koreas — in 1999 and 2002 and last November. In March, the Cheonan, a 1,200-ton South Korean Navy corvette, exploded in those waters, and the ship went down, killing 46 sailors. South Korea blames a North Korean torpedo attack for the sinking. In the past two weeks, it has conducted large-scale naval exercises with its main ally, the United States, or on its own.

North Korea has denied responsibility and called the accusation a justification for warmongering by South Korea and the United States. Last week, it warned South Korean fishermen to stay away from the waters around the two islands because its military might launch a “strong physical retaliation” against a five-day South Korean naval drill there. The South Korean drill, meant as a show of force against the North, ended Monday. North Korea regularly threatens a major military clash in the disputed waters. In December, it threatened to fire shells into the waters as a way to enforce its claims. Later, both militaries fired shells, but they did not attack each other, nor did their shells cross the Northern Limit Line.

North Korea has never accepted the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn unilaterally by theAmerican-led United Nations forces at the end of the Korean War, and the North claims waters many kilometers south of it.